NorthRock Partners LLC Takes $297,000 Position in Vericel Co. (NASDAQ:VCEL)

NorthRock Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Vericel Co. (NASDAQ:VCEL) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 5,402 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $297,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI bought a new stake in shares of Vericel during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Vericel by 511.1% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,265 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 1,058 shares in the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Vericel by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,357 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $129,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in Vericel by 826.6% during the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,511 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $138,000 after purchasing an additional 2,240 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its holdings in Vericel by 82.5% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,707 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $149,000 after purchasing an additional 1,224 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on VCEL. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Vericel from $61.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on Vericel from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Vericel in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Vericel from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Vericel has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $60.86.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Dominick Colangelo sold 24,850 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.89, for a total value of $1,040,966.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 260,354 shares in the company, valued at $10,906,229.06. This represents a 8.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 5.20% of the company’s stock.

Vericel Stock Performance

NASDAQ VCEL opened at $42.48 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 708.12 and a beta of 1.31. Vericel Co. has a 1 year low of $37.39 and a 1 year high of $63.00. The business’s fifty day moving average is $42.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $51.13.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.23) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by ($0.14). Vericel had a net margin of 1.56% and a return on equity of 1.48%. The company had revenue of $52.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.86 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.08) EPS. Vericel’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Vericel Co. will post 0.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Vericel Profile

Vericel Corporation, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the research, development, manufacture, and distribution of cellular therapies for sports medicine and severe burn care markets in North America. The company markets autologous cell therapy products comprising MACI, an autologous cultured chondrocytes on porcine collagen membrane for the repair of symptomatic, and single or multiple full-thickness cartilage defects of the knee; Epicel, a permanent skin replacement humanitarian use device for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with deep-dermal or full-thickness burns; and NexoBrid, a biological orphan product for eschar removal in adults with deep partial-thickness and/or full-thickness thermal burns.